Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) is facing calls to be shut down for failing to properly manage the environmental catastrophe caused by the meltdown of three of the company’s nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan. The disaster was the result of a tsunami triggered by a March 2011 earthquake.

“Our report catalogues a multitude of errors and wilful negligence that left the Fukushima plant unprepared for the events of March 11,” he added. “And it examines serious deficiencies in the response to the accident by Tepco, regulators and the government.”

None of this appears to have prepared the company to anticipate the Fukushima disaster, which forced the Japanese government to evacuate 160,000 people from the region around the plant.

Recently Tepco has finally started to admit that it made serious mistakes. “Our safety culture, skills and ability were all insufficient,” Naomi Hirose, Tepco's president, told a news conference in April. “We must humbly accept our failure to
prevent the accident, which we should have avoided by using our wisdom
and human resources to be better prepared.”

Even then the company flatly denied that the ground water that flooded the basements of the damaged reactor buildings has been leaking into the ocean, resulting in elevated levels of radioactive cesium and strontium that are dangerous to human health.

Government officials say that they are very unhappy with Tepco. “We’ve allowed Tokyo Electric to deal with the contaminated water situation on its own and they’ve essentially turned it into a game of ‘Whack-a-Mole,’” Toshimitsu Motegi, the Japanese trade minister, told reporters earlier this week. “From now on, the government will move to the forefront.”